Saturday, September 29, 2012

Travelling Solander Project, London Print StudioMultiMedia

Guest Editor: Michael Florrimell

PreambleThis blogspot is not only devoted to ArtCloth and all things fabric (e.g. wearables) but also to limited edition prints on paper and artists' printmakers books. I have listed below for your convenience my contribution to this artistic genre.

IntroductionOver the past nine years I have followed the London Print Studio (LPS) web site and returned to the LPS in 2003, 2005 and 2008. I note the LPS have followed through with their International exhibitions and residence programs. I asked John Phillips over a coffee in Harrow Rd, London, where the LPS is situated, when visiting the LPS in 2008 if he would be interested in participating in the Travelling Solander project as a special guest. I also requested the LPS would show the finished Solander in a Perspex solander box format at the LPS in 2010. “The rest is history” - I returned to Melbourne and began selecting and inviting Australian artists to participate in the Traveling Slander project.

The selection of Australian artists was made by a process of choosing professional practicing artists in print media. Several artists have been with Exchange Partners in Print since the very first portfolio in 1991. I also wanted a selection of artists who worked in different media and concepts of print in Australia.

The proposal was for a group of Australian artists to produce one 56 cm x 76 cm piece of print media work each in their own signature style. The artists were not asked to produce a work specific to the concept of the Traveling Solander. However, on reflection around 50% of the artists have chosen to acknowledge the idea of the solander in the project.

The Traveling Solander title for the project was a reflection on archival practice within print media as a whole. The aim of the project is to show and then donate the 36 works to a British museum as an archival piece, which reflects Australian Print media made by Australian artists in 2008-2009.

I asked John Phillips the Director of the LPS to participate because I wanted a British artist to respond to the concept or theme of the Solander. John’s work “Sold” reflects on the 200th anniversary of the abolition of the slave trade in the British Empire. Although the word Solander is normally associated with collection and archival practice. John’s work fits perfectly as statement on freedom. The freedom for all to practice within all cultures is a very important part of historical collection.

Like the Exchange Partners in Print portfolios donated in the past to print workshops in the UK the aim is to promote Australian artists work. On reflection the past portfolios were donated as examples of reference to Australian print media artists in the UK and elsewhere. My hope is the Traveling Solander will act as this same sort of reference material with in the Museum system of the UK.

In closing I would like to thank John Phillips for all his assistance with the project. I would also like to thank all the Australian Travelling Solander artists for their commitment and truly fantastic work.
Footnote:
Solander (also solander box) noun: a protective box made in the form of a book, for holding such items as botanical specimens, maps, and color plates. ORIGIN: late 18th century, named after Daniel C. Solander (1736–82), Swedish botanist.

John Phillips, Director of the London Print Studio“Sold” was made for an exhibition at London Print Studio in 2007 (The Print That Turned the World), which marked the 200th anniversary of the abolition of the Slave Trade in the British Empire. The exhibition is explored in detail in chapter 6 of Marcus Wood’s book, The Horrible Gift of Freedom, which will be published in September 2009.

Title: Sold.
Medium: Digital Print.
Size: 5 6cm x 76 cm.

Rebecca Beardmore“The Lookout no. 8” is part of a sequence of new images from the Sightseeing series by Canadian born, Sydney-based print artist Rebecca Beardmore. This new collection continues to explore the fragile relationship between seeing, perception and understanding. Beardmore’s painterly photographic images of androgynous figures kiss the surface of zinc, acrylic or rag paper, often embossed or silk-screened with fields of descriptive small scale typed passages and raised punctuation marks.

Her work is situated very much on the boundaries of perception, having a fugitive presence that is almost an absence, in which the viewer is partially reflected, setting up a provocative and shifting relationship between the artist, the work, its meaning and the viewer. The pieces play on the limitations of visual experience, setting up a subtle interplay between image, text and material surface where each layer is presented with such fragility that they cannot be collectively discerned. To engage fully with one, involves relinquishing another.

Rebecca Beardmore is a lecturer in Printmedia at Sydney College of the Arts, Sydney University. She has exhibited extensively in North America, Europe and Asia as well as Sydney, Brisbane and Perth. In 2006, Beardmore was selected as a feature artist for the book “Printmaking at the Edge”, an anthology of international contemporary print practice published in the UK. This book became the topic of a panel discussion at the 2007 Southern Graphics Print Conference in Kansas City for which Rebecca Beardmore was an invited guest speaker.

Her work is held in numerous institutional, museum and private collections, including The Art Gallery of NSW, Rhode Island School of Art and Design and The University of Alberta, Print Study Centre.

These woodlands often occur on the lower-lying sections of the coastal plain and generally close to creeks and rivers. The flowers of the Poplar Gums are a rich source of pollen and nectar, and the hollows formed in the limbs and trunks are home to a diversity of fauna. The shrubs and grasslands beneath these Gums are also important, providing habitat to many ground-dwelling and ground-foraging fauna, including the endangered Black-throated Finch.

The location of these woodlands in the landscape means they are often cleared for suburban development where they are replaced with bitumen roads, concrete kerbing and repetitive blocks of lawns and houses.

These developments, generally built in ignorance of local climatic conditions don’t value the richness of these natural environments nor recognize the real toll enacted on the native wildlife.

The innate beauty of Eucalyptus platyphylla woodlands is complex, requiring a patient and attentive mind to fully appreciate its subtle intricacies.

I aim to draw attention to these contemporary losses in our ecosystem, and wish for the viewer to become visually imbued with the energetic resonance, the rhythm embodied in these woodlands.

Jim BrodieIn our post industrial, post modern, post colonial consumerist world the new paradigm of worship is the brand. The process of branding has been described as follows: "Believing is belonging. When you are able to create brands that people believe in, you also create groups of people who feel that they belong…it is an essential human truth that we all want to belong to something that is larger than ourselves"[1].

The consumption of the brand/product by consumer evangelicals may be seen as the equivalent of partaking of the Eucharist in a Christian worship service. With these thoughts in mind I was watching the spectacle of the death of Michael Jackson and the global outpouring of grief on his demise.

In a consumer society Michael Jackson was a brand shared by millions. He was an exemplar of their expectations; fulfilling Andy Warhol’s prophecy that, ‘In the future everyone will be famous for 15 minutes.’ So Michael Jackson’s persona has been transmutated from Wacko Jacko to an icon of musical genius via his passing. This is akin to an alchemist converting lead into gold by the use of arcane and specialist knowledge and ritual.

I decided to produce an image in the tradition of popular religious art with an emphasis on glossy and saccharine surfaces. I did this because it seems to encapsulate the following concerns about our current cultural values.

"The great danger, in other words, of the world we have built is that it leaves us vulnerable to meaninglessness – to a world where consumption is all that happens, because there is nothing else that means anything" [2].Footnotes:
[1] Patrick Hanlon, 2006, Primal Branding, The Free Press, New York, p. 6.
[2] Bill McKibben, 2003, ENOUGH: Staying Human in an Engineered Age, Henry Holt & Company, New York, p. 46.

Marian CrawfordClimate change and global warming are seen as indicators of the impact humans have had on the natural world over the last century[1]. Nature is no longer seen as “self-evident, given, coherent and inexhaustible.”[2] This re-picturing of ‘nature’ is an anxious image. My work clustering investigates this anxiety about changes to the natural world.

The images that make up the work describe specimens of endangered and vulnerable Victorian plants, which are listed as threatened under the Flora & Fauna Guarantee Act 1988, (published by the Victorian Deptartment of Sustainability & Environment, Victoria, Australia).

The work is constructed by joining images cut from etchings and digital images and stitching them with thread to a paper support. This network of images suggests connection and a dynamic balance of relationships.

My works explore the capacity of visual art works to suggest invisible and unseen forces, and the constant movements and adjustments of a system in flux, in a nexus of themes ― mourning and climate change; science, nature and biodiversity.Footnotes:
[1] Jeremy Symons, National Wildlife Federation, “According to the (United Nation’s Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change Assessment Report 2007), there is at least a 90 percent certainty that human activities are causing global warming since 1950, especially from using fossil fuels that drive global warming pollution.” (1 March 2009).
[2] Philip Ursprung ‘Double Helix and Blue Planet: The Visualization of Nature in the Twentieth Century’, in Nature DesignMuseum für Gestaltung Zürich, Lars Müller, Zürich, 2007 p 180.

Rachael CowleyBreathing Waters – but a breath in time, then lost forever.

Is a continuation of a body of work that explores meditative aspects of land scapes. Breathing Waters refer to the movement of the ripples over to notions of liquid change and the insignificants of time.

Warren Flannigan
Artist’s Story for PrintThe invitation was sent out to attend the Green Global Gnome Summit on 21.12.2012. Gnomes from everywhere started to arrive expecting to attend. Hollow, greedy gnomes were positively discriminated against and were not welcome. Only genuine gnomes were allowed to enter the Summit Tree House door to register. This angered the bully, hollow, greedy gnomes and they bashed on the locked Tree House door and yelled out, “Let us in! Let us in! We don’t want to be left outside during December 2012. Let us in!” But the door did not open for them and they still remain locked outside to this day.

Michael FlorrimellThe print for the Traveling Solander Project was inspired by a publication, which I acquired in 1992 called “British Printmaking Studios - A Survey of Artists Open Print Workshops in the UK, collated, edited by Silvie Turner, Published by Estamp, 1992”.

The publication was a basic guide to UK print workshops many of which still operate today. In the years 1998, 2003, 2005 and 2008 I travelled to London UK. I was lucky enough to visit some of the workshops listed in this publication. In later years I arranged as the coordinator of Partners in Print to donate a large amount of PNP donation portfolios to some of the workshops listed in this publication. See collections listing in this catalogue.

The print I have produced for the Travelling Solander is a unique state, combination of enamel paint and printed etching plates, on black Somerset paper. I produced this work specifically as a gift of gratitude to the UK print workshops concept. The Australian Tee towel on the flip side of the print refers to a new nation trying to find it’s Identity. The Australian flag on the tee towel is silkscreen printed by a commercial printing firm for two-dollar shops to sell on Australia day which is a public holiday in Australia each year.

The context of the work references the Union Jack (English Flag) as a depiction of symbolic containment of print technologies and print text as reference, which are relevant components of historical print medallions.

The History of Print in England dates back to William Caxton’s first printed book “The History of Troy” 1473 and has developed on a daily basis within workshops and institutions in the UK ever since. I wanted my work to reflect a matrix of transitional images of print machines and text which in abstract forms pay homage to the history of print in England.

Australian early print history reflects many European technologies and ideas. On the first fleet to Port Jackson, New South Wales in 1788 a printing press was loaded and brought out to record and publish events and natural reflections in a new land. A lot of early prints in Australian history were made by Europeans who were brought out to colonize the new country. By 1790 the first Government newspaper was printed. Australian print history also reflects on Australian artists who traveled to Europe and America in search of new techniques, technology and ideas in print over the past 210 years. Recently Australian artists have participated in the International Print Conference, which was held in Bristol, UK this year. It is an important part of any Australian artist to travel and bring back new ideas now as it has been in the past.

I was lucky enough to do a residence at the University of West England, Bristol, Print Media department in 2005. In particular I was influenced by their idea of the poly technical approach of teaching print media. The idea of the poly technical in this case was to bring together all the main fine art mediums of print media in their technical and Historical format within a University context. And then to integrate Fine art practice with commercial media Industries as research based production.

In the 2005 I again visited the London Print Studios where I noticed a change in the work I had seen at the LPS on my first visit in 1998. The shift was from traditional print methods to digital graphic design printed work. In 2008 my next visit to the LPS I noticed a shift to 3D printed work and even 3D sculptural works, which referenced ideas in print media.

Richard HardingThe notion of visibility for gay men over the past decade has changed dramatically with the advent the Internet dating sites and personal profiles that require descriptions of the user and what they are looking for in another. These descriptive boxes have spawned such terms as ‘straight acting’; these terms or language generally create abstract spaces or psychological spaces that we must operate within. These terms privilege heteronormative masculinity above other forms of masculinity while it also creates a new homosexual closet.

The ‘Invisible Man’ is an appropriated and re constructed work from a found image on the back of the local MCV (Melbourne Community Voice) magazine from March 2008. This advert targeted gay males during the time of the Gay and Lesbian Chill Out Festival in rural Victoria. The selection of this particular image was based on its ‘acting’ component via the perception of authenticity; he has manicured nails, with clean unstained hands, his clothes are new, too new. He could be straight or gay. His actual orientation ceases to be important because he is acting, he lacks authenticity due to his over manicured look; he is placed, posing for the camera. He is on the back of a gay magazine; he is targeting the gay or homo demographic.

The title of this work, ‘“Invisible Man – Walk like a man” conjures up direct references to HG Wells’ novel of the same name; here Science Fiction meets Queer Theory. What I am attempting to do with this particular work is combine the historical codes of representation; speech, gesture, posture, and costume, with notions of the psychological space of the closet and the visibility of gay males. These historical codes of representation are performative and repetitious; they pre-empt the act of coming out or more pointedly staying in due to how identifiable a man is. This repetition is underlined through the actual process of printing; digital and traditional.

Jodi HeffernanMy recent work explores the fragility of coastal regions with particular emphasis on mangroves. This includes work looking at coastal mangrove areas in the Westernport Bay Region of Victoria and Daintree Coast, Queensland. Future projects will include rivers and coastal regions along the Sunshine Coast in Queensland.

‘The Fragile Edge’ was made after a trip to the Cape Tribulation. The work explores the use of shadow, fragmentation and collage as a means to underline the significance and fragile beauty of mangroves in the coastal landscape.

Bridget HillebrandFrequent journeys to the Wimmera district of Western Victoria have become an integral part of the way I work. The chiaroscuro linocut print has been layered and stitched to reflect fragments of the pastoral landscape and Mitre Rock. Salt lakes, fence lines, billabongs and walking tracks are often depicted from an aerial view or perspective. My most recent prints are based on images triggered from memory and experience. They document the rise and fall of shadows and the fragility of the landscape as seen through the eyes of a looking glass.

Anne- Maree HunterImelda Marcos’ name became a byword for excess consumption - does anyone really need 1060 pairs of shoes? This mantle has probably passed to the television character Carrie Bradshaw, from “Sex in the City”.

“I cried because I had no shoes, then I met a women who had no feet!”, intentionally tempts us with consumer items. Presently our culture seems very materialistic. We are subliminally and overtly told that to be happy we must buy products, amass things and consume! But there is emptiness to this “retail therapy”. I believe prints/art should be beautiful but there is definitely a sharp point to many of my works. This print is from a series called “[is this] What Women Want […?]” begun last year prior to the Global Financial Crisis. I guess the world got a wake up call!

Anne-Maree Hunter has a background in printmaking specialising in lithography, etching and has had 13 solo exhibitions. A keen interest in text led to artists’ books and she recently completed a PhD titled “Constructing the Eclectic Bibliothèque” at The University of Newcastle, Australia concerned with creating a library of artists’ books. In 2008, she was invited to show work and present a paper at the Seongnam International Book arts Fair and Conference in South Korea.

She is currently a casual lecturer in Printmaking at The University of Newcastle, Australia.

Title: I cried because I had no shoes, then I met a women who had no feet!
Medium: Collograph.
Edition: Unique state.
Size: 56 cm x 76 cm.

Megan HunterThe car has and still does play a significant role in the cultural history of Australia. The very nature of our countries vast expanse and sprawling cities has encouraged Australians love affair with the car.

I spent my early childhood in country Victoria - everybody had a car or Ute usually both. In my early 20's I lived nearly an hour outside the city centre, for me the car was essential to get to university, work and to engage socially.

The car was woven inextricably into the lifestyle of many Australians. I was drawn to reflect activities which also had personal significance for me. I remember as a child, heading off in a packed car down to beachside camping sites for summer holidays. Balmy nights at the local drive-in, my sister and I both in the backseat in our pajamas. Day trips down to the coast the car filled with all essentials - typically the board and the dog.

Revisiting these past memories influenced the color and design aspects of this piece. Houses I had lived in and places I had been during this time. Images of interiors and furniture of past eras emerged whilst I recollected my childhood. I remember the laminated printed vintage kitchen table and bench tops, both in the caravan and at my aunts. In particular I had a fondness for the design with the swirling myriad of colored, patterned line work overlaid over a monotone background.

Michael KempsonIntelligent Design is a pseudo-scientific term used by biblical literalists, to describe a renewed model for an ancient creation story. Cleverly shedding many of the daft ideas that once cost creationists scientific and legal credibility, it represents the most recent shot in a battle that still rages between blinkered Christians and thinkers who reckon Darwin’s evolutionary tome On Origin of The Species contains some pretty reasonable ideas.

This etching is presented in the form of a visual question. Arrangements of detritus, gathered like the relics of daily existence, become metaphorical characters in a bigger drama. These objects are ameliorated to highlight rife contradictions in the constant ethical challenges that face human interaction.

Intelligent Design features two contrasting containers: an empty coke bottle, symbol of American corporate dominance and an icon of twentieth century industrial design that stands apart from a herd of Banksias. This remarkable piece of ‘natural’ design is a curious, evocative and beloved floral emblem of the Australian bush. I was particularly interested in playing with May Gibb’s interpretation of this distinctive seedpod, as the inspiration for her villainous characters in books such as ‘Snugglepot and Cuddlepie’, that were used to scare the living daylights out of little children at bedtime.

Helen KennedyMy studio practice is a combination of painting, printmaking, and drawing. I often work with photographs as a starting point for a work or series of work. The shapes or forms are derived from shadows or light reflections from the natural world. I work with layering thin films of colour, which are then worked back into so as to create depth and texture.

Light and its ambiguities and contradictions of what we perceive to exist and what actually exists is the motivation behind my work. My work is concerned with the intangible image, in presence and absence, insight and blindness. It is an abstract interpretation of light and the invisible world through which light passes. Dust, steam, smoke and the unseen particles are recurring themes in my work.

Malcolm KingThis Print could have been alternately titled “Awaiting a postcard from deep space?” We are the aliens and all our collective machinations of religion, power, commerce and politics pay scant regard to the unique fact that in this vast universe this extraordinary planet and all it contains exists at all.

Jenny KitchenerDaniel Solander and Joseph Banks collected plant specimens whilst in Botany Bay in 1770. The specimens were first described in manuscript form, and later, back in England, provided with descriptive tickets and arranged in a systematic order. My print makes reference to this method of describing collections, but in a more fluid manner.

I love collecting images. I have boxes full of images, which I have collected over the years. Like the bower bird that only collects blue objects for his bower, I also have my own ‘selective focus’ and reasons for collecting particular images.

The images in my print can be read as a manuscript; as three separate lines of text. Every image is arranged in a systematic, linear order. Each line functions as a sentence, creating a particular narrative. But the reading of this collection is not prescriptive. Meaning will be different for every reader as their understanding is filtered by their own selective focus.

Julie LancasterKnown as “The Separation Tree” an English oak, located at the Convert, Abbottsford in Melbourne, Australia is thought to have been planted in the 1850’s by Edward Curr to commemorate the founding of the state of Victoria.

The work is informed by the powerful presence and architecture of this oak. Its structure revealed in winter, shaped and formed through time, it stands sweeping the ground with coiled branches baring witness to past and present. Reconfigured by digital processes, foreign but adapted to the Australian environment, the trees speak of historical and ultimately human parallel to our own experience in this land.

Neil MaloneThis picture is from a series of single print works which consider the idea of stamping. These works explore our relationship to ideas we might recognize, consider plausible or meaningful from given pieces of ambiguous but constructed information.

Rebecca MayoIn this work Mayo is building ‘family mistletoes’ as an alternative model to the family tree. Informed by the work of ecologist David Watson, she is interested in Australian Mistletoe and the pivotal role it plays in its natural habitats. Historically, Australian Mistletoe has been largely ignored or regarded as a menace to the trees it inhabits. However, contemporary ecological engagements with mistletoe suggest a different picture. Mistletoe has been identified as a ‘keystone’ plant, reflecting, rather than being the cause of, either a healthy or a disturbed eco-system.

With this in mind, ‘family mistletoes’ explore how gender relations are reflected in historical knowledge. Like mistletoe, women are keystones, vital for the formation of the family tree, yet historically represented as incidental, perhaps even as parasites. Mayo has been using dye extracted from the leaves of Australian mistletoes to print onto fabric from which she constructs imagined historical garments. The digital print Henrietta 1851 – 1921 depicts the second generation (out of six) of her family mistletoe. Each woman playing a keystone role in a family tree.The women have been reinstated alongside the mistletoe as the central protagonists in this story.

Paula McLoughlinSweaty Little Tragedies is part of a series of screen prints playing on the idea of domestic scenes and opera style tragedies.

The images could be innocent and sweet enough, but today there is a pervasive idea in that images, especially images in art, are not to be trusted. That there is always a darkness lurking and we should be vigilant and judging. This idea is permeating a person’s psyche and changing the way we see.

The series, of which this is print is indicative, has a multiplicity in the way they are viewed – they could about something that is truly tragic – a domestic bliss that hides something truly broken. The prints could be a comment on the deceit and lies in relationships, a portrayal of a miss-belief that this type of domestic life is the Nirvana that everyone should be trying to obtain. Or it could be a complete no show, an innocent family portrait in a stylised screen print.

You can make your own narrative about this print and this series. The sweatiness and the tragedy may not always be the image but the convolutions we, as the viewer put, on the image.

Gerard MorrisseyThis work is about my interest in performance spaces, which I find interesting. In this instance it is at Cassilis, a ghost town in the Alps. There was nothing specific about the location, history or name that made me choose the site. I just happened across it. The color and contrast of the rusted metal, bush and sky caught my attention. I think old abandoned cars are interesting for many reasons however it struck me that I never see them, like I used to when I lived in the country as a kid. You would see lots of old decaying wrecks in paddocks. These days I never see any about. We live in economically successful times and our environment has been cleaned up. Very little decaying detritus from our past on display, old decaying homesteads knocked down for a newer version or simply removed. So this site held nostalgia for a more recent past for me. The cars date from the 30's a time when the mines were all but closed. They are a part of a new story of this boom! Towns in the gold fields within the history of time will be replaced by something else long after my memory has evoked the past.

Jan PalethorpeOver the past few years I have been looking at endangered Victorian/New South Wales invertebrates, Synemon Plana being one of those. It is a very delicate golden winged moth that glitters in the afternoon sun, more like a small butterfly as it is diurnal. It joins in the ranks of the thousands of threatened creatures on our planet who are being driven out of their habitats by greed and human stupidity. There was a large population of golden sun moths sharing tabarets and empty supermarket lots in Craigieburn who have recently succumbed to development....I am not sure whether they will survive the improved housing of the humans.

Michael PriorThese tall sexy women prey on men. For bait, they use cupcakes with a cherry on top. After mating, the female devours the male. Here we see the victim paralysed by the hyper-sweet cake, about to meet his fate. Naughty Nicola can be found hunting in the niche-ecosystem of car repair workshops where many dick-led, but innocent and ever trusting and unsuspecting males, can be found. With so many potential mates available, her ovipositor is always bursting with fertilised eggs ready to hatch. The Cupcake Delivery Girl is an example of a species, which has thrived in the so-called Man-Made urban environment.

Jutta PryorMore than ever and in increasingly new directions, virtual technologies stimulate our cognitive senses and have become a tool for perceived instant gratification, empowerment and escape from mundane realities and pressures.

As our natural environments, economies and social structures are depleted and manipulated; many of us reinvigorate our inner selves with personal forays into the infinite possibilities of the virtual realm at the ambivalence of real and tangible experiences, to the point where we challenge what is good, what is real and what we are looking for.

Karenne ReesThe era of mass consumption began with the industrial revolution, when for the first time in history products were available in outstanding quantities, at outstandingly low prices, being thus available to virtually everyone.

"The phenomenon of could be compared to certain traits of human psychology described by pointing out similitudes between principles and ???." (Dr.Gadd Saad). Lipovetsky has noted that modern times have brought about the rise of a third type of Homo Consumerists (for consumerist person) who is always unsatisfied”[1].

According to Dr.Gadd Saad, as humans, our consumption behaviour has been shaped, on the one part, by our social and cultural influences and background, and, on the other part, by our biological and genetic framework resulting from thousands of years of evolution. The shopping trolley (Cart) was thus born; our ability to invent tools to adapt to our environment is what makes us high level primates.Footnotes:
[1] Extract from Wikipedia.

Elisabeth RoddaElisabeth Rodda is a digital photographer who combines her artistic talents with a documentary /sequencing precision which she has been developing over the past nine years. She often works with dancers and filmmakers as a stills photographer for continuity in their performances. Also Elisabeth shoots for advertising and promoting the works by other artists. She has also done work for brochures to promote Pilates/ Physiotherapy centers.

Elisabeth has won many awards in competitions she has entered in the USA and has been represented in coffee table books published in America and England.

This work in progress was choreographed and performed by Mr Taurus Ashley and Jade Dewi Tyas Tunggal. These two talented dancers were rehearsing 'INTIMATE ALIEN', a work that was entered in two competitions. The photographs, taken by Elisabeth Rodda, were for a local paper. The work was very strong and brought out the strengths of Taurus Ashley’s graceful movements, his wonderful use of lines and angles that we note are often mirrored by Jade. Jade’s use of the net also gives a distinct feeling of what the sea offers up.......aliens, who can be caught, and will shock when seen.

Bob StewartIn Victoria, Australia on the outskirts of capital city Melbourne, occurred some of the worst bushfire devastation in the state’s occupied history. Horrific, terrifying, catastrophic - thousand upon thousand of natural bush land hectares burnt flat black, residences completely ravaged with sad losses of human lives and countless animal deaths. Strong gale force winds and destructive fireballs were merciless. The fire had taken control – nature’s force was too powerful, despite the valiant efforts of brave fire fighters and residents.

Deb WilliamsThis image is part of an ongoing investigation that has emerged from a direct experience with the dog that begins with looking.

Whether it is a street dog in Bali, a camp dog in the top end of Australia, or an observation of my own dog mates, I aim to depict the dog as him or herself, as an individual.

There is a need to explore the divisions and alliances between us and animals. Reflecting on the fact that, however close I think I am to my companion species, there is always the separateness and uniqueness of the animal other.

There is a natural urge to anthropomorphize the dog. We do share emotional experiences and build strong relationships with dogs that link us. Whilst being aware of these similarities there is also a need to acknowledge difference.

Cherie WintersAn indoor gangster perches amongst the elements ill prepared, he stares blankly into the future. “The relationship is complicated however with the man constantly wishing to shape and control the natural world, yet at the same time desiring to yield to its wilderness and danger”[1].

Winters’ artworks have followed a preoccupation with trees and their relationship to culture. Inspired by artists: Bruce Latimer and his etching Landscape with Cranes, Michael Landy and his weed prints and Simon Norfolk’s’ Bleed series photographs, 2004.

When creating Perched, Winter used age-old methods of transferring ink by hand, exposing its nature to the viewer. The technique produces immediacy and builds anticipation from working on the back of the paper, while making a mono print that is drawn with pressure.

Footnote:
[1] Uncanny Nature, Rebecca Coates, ACCA, 2006.

Title: Perched.
Medium: Mono Print.
Size: 56 cm x 76 cm.

Marie-Therese WisniowskiAustralian plants have a unique and sustainable life-death cycle in which remnants of past generations become the fertilizer to nurture new shoots of the next generations. The Venerable Buddhist Master Hsing Yun has often reflected upon this life-death cycle. The fine art cloth print, “Blossoms Falling - Lotus Rising”, reflects upon the connectivity between the “fall” and the “rise” of so many processes in nature and moreover, of so many historical events within our civilisation.

Technique: Hand printed multiple resist and overprinting techniques employing dye sublimation on delustered satin.
Note: The dyes are lightfast and archival quality. Due to the complex layering nature of the technique, no print can ever be duplicated and therefore the work is a unique, one-off, print.

The print has been backed with calico and the edges have been turned back and secured with a fusible, web adhesive. The finished print can be washed or dry cleaned - if need be.

The Thinker said: "I truly love thee." The Knower replied: "How do you reasonably and rationally know or do you just simply believe and think so?" Neither saw the second wave of the tsunami behind them about to hit. They had eyes only for each other. It was a bright, beautiful and sunny day.

Artist’s Statement
This print image was inspired and influenced by:
My local beach and observing the movements of its waves
Recent natural global tsunamis
Picture postcards
Cultural dislocation
Collectors and collections of history
Conversations with Dr. Maxi Jacobs
The book, “The Power of Now” by Eckhart Tolle.

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2018 CrossXpollinatioN Exhibition - Journey's

Marie-Therese has been invited to be a 'Feature Artist' at the '2018 CrossXpollinatioN' exhibition which is themed 'Journey's'. Her ArtCloth Installation 'Timelines: An Environmental Journey' will be exhibited at the Colac Otway Performing Arts & Cultural Centre, Colac, Victoria from the 7th - 29th July 2018. The installation will feature works employing her signature MultiSperse Dye Sublimation (MSDS) technique on synthetic fibres.Click on the image to see how the Gondwana II was created.

Art Quill Studio @ Sydney Craft & Quilt Fair.

2018 Sydney Craft & Quilt Fair at the International Convention Centre, Sydney, from the 20th – 24th June.Art Quill Studio can be found at stand no. G29_LP1 where my unique and contemporary hand dyed, hand painted and hand printed ArtCloth fabric lengths, fat quarters, fabric samplers and scarves will be available as well as my one-off/limited edition digitally designed ArtCloth fabric lengths.Click on the image to view some of my fabric lengths and the techniques used to make them.

I have uploaded a new Glossary on my blogspot.The Glossary of Paper, Photography, Printing, Prints and Publication Terms is highly focused, containing definitions and terms pertinent to the specific categories in the title. Click on the image to access it!

MEMORIESWoven Heritage Exhibition

Marie-Therese's ArtCloth print, 'Memories' is included in the Zayed University Permanent Collection Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Click on the image to read about Marie-Therese's artwork/technique which was previously exhibited at a solo exhibition at Sydney's Eden Garden Gallery.

About Me

I work full time as a studio artist, researcher, author, curator, speaker and tutor. I am also the Director of Art Quill Studio, The Education Division of Art Quill & Co. Pty. Ltd. at Arcadia Vale, NSW, Australia. I teach as a casual lecturer at The University of Newcastle (Australia) and I am the former co-editor of Textile Fibre Forum art magazine.

Employing my signature techniques I specialize in the area of ArtCloth, artist printmaker books and limited edition prints.

Followers

My Most Visited Posts"When Rainforests Ruled" - ArtCloth Exhibition

My Scarves @ The Australian Craft Awards

My unique, hand dyed and printed silk rayon velvet and pashmina scarves are available for purchase. To purchase a scarf please contact - studio@artquill.com.au.Click on the image above to see my velvet ArtCloth scarves.

Welcome to Art Quill Studio

Art Quill Studio is a trademark of Art Quill & Co P/L, which is an Australian Company with no subsidiaries outside of Australia.

This blog will be dedicated to arousing world wide interest in: (a) using the medium of cloth to create a work of art; (b) promoting works on paper; (c) exploring concepts that are the basis of my current artworks; (d) offering opinions on art issues; (e) providing art resources to the public at large.